82 months

The girls did some modeling in sister match outfits and fell in love with their new holiday nightgowns and hoodies which are both oh so soft! C is always ready to get in front of the camera, she is a pro as long as it isn't sunny and bothering her eyes and has a smile that melts my heart. They had fun every morning looking for their elf, Bert, and were ecstatic the morning they woke up to the small glitter filled Christmas tree he brought them, it was a total girl tree full of rainbows, unicorns and sweet treats. They were giggling about how next year it would get glitter all over our new house and how mom would hate it, it might become a patio tree! Having the small tree changed our mood and put us more into the holiday spirit, they were missing their inflatables and big tree, next year we will go big!

The girls finished up their last couple of weeks of eLearning, it was a little bitter sweet it was coming to an end, but it was time for them to go back to the classroom and their friends in the new year. C learned about holiday traditions in different countries and joined J and BH in some fun holiday activities their teacher had planned, hers didn't plan much and the work was lacking! She had fun drawing the Grinch and listening to Christmas stories. They went to school for school pictures, we couldn't pass those up, I needed this one to add to their collection, of course C had to get all dolled up in a dress with a denim jacket on top, she is very stylish!

While most will complain about eLearning we had such a great experience the first 18 weeks of school flew by. While C was a little challenging at times (because she was bored) she did her work, got straight 4's and enjoyed the live lessons. She was super excited to be returning to school in January and was looking forward to going back into the classroom with some of the other eLearning kids. Her main eLearning teacher was remaining with the online students so she shifted classes over to the other teacher who had mainly done their writing and language arts lessons, C was always laughing and giggling when she was teaching, and when she found out that is who her teacher would be she was happy. We visited school the last week to bring their teachers gifts and were able to meet their new teachers in person. C's new teacher was so sweet, bubbly and I knew from the get-go was going to be a perfect fit for C. She was super excited to be returning in person and to have little people back in her room. She, along with C's eLearning teacher took C to see her classroom and first grade hallway, our wild child is very calm and shy at school and it was great for her to see things so she wouldn't be as nervous the first day back. We had our couple of last fun Fridays and tried to make them fun for the kids. We had picnic lunches and played at the park, they decorated Gingerbread houses and made Christmas cookies. I wish they were always out at noon on Fridays and that we had some weekday time to do fun things!

The last day of eLearning was a little nostalgic, it had been 10 months of us being together 24/7 and five months of BH being like my third child. While I wasn't going to miss the crazy of keeping up with their work being done or who needed to be on a live call I was going to miss the chatter and chaos that had filled our house for almost the last year. C didn't have much work to do so she spent the morning playing Fuzz Bugs on the computer while she waited for the other two to be done.. They read their 20 minute independent reading, played  some learning computer games and we said goodbye to eLearning and put their computers away! Later that night we had family dinner to celebrate Christmas together. We had promised the girls a fancy dinner out but it ended up being too cold to sit outside so we went to BH's house for a home cooked steakhouse quality meal and to exchange gifts. Daddy cooked two tomahawk steaks which the girls all put down, it was a wonderful evening with friends who are more to use like family having spent so much time together these last months. 

The couple of days between school being out and Christmas we spent prepping for the holiday. C was my little sous chef and helped me to make the chocolate chip cookies and rice pudding. I think she only helped so that she could lick the beaters and the stirring spoon. She did a good job dolloping the cookies onto the sheet and stirring the pudding, she earned her keep! We BBQed, the girls went in the pool and we just hung out, it was nice to not have anything to do for a few days other than cook!

We spent a quiet Christmas Eve morning/afternoon at the condo, daddy got McDonalds for lunch and then we got ourselves showered/dressed up and packed to head over to G&G's house, we had planned to stay the night so that the girls woke up to a real tree and house in the morning! We had a wonderful evening celebrating together, you wouldn't have known we were in the middle of a pandemic still. The girls overtook Grandpa's office and computer to track Santa, they were constantly in there seeing where he was and how close he was getting to us, they even got to talk to a NORAD elf to get a real time update! We opened gifts, the girls got way too much, they loved their ice cream truck and diner they got for their American Girl dolls, they hadn't been playing with them and said they needed things for them to do, now they better play with their very expensive dolls! Grandma made a delicious prime rib for dinner and of course we all ate too much food! After dessert we set out cookies for Santa and finally around 9:30pm they said they needed to go to bed, they noticed that Santa was approaching close to the east coast of the US, why is there not a tracker to make them want to go to bed every night? 

Christmas morning the girls were up bright and early and ready to open their presents from Santa. They wasted no time finding the presents with their initials and dug right in! They got Barbie's, Legos, pajamas, books, hair dryers, games, and other small things, they must have been good girls for Santa to bring this much! C was most excited for her colored hair Barbie, she had gotten J a special haired Barbie for her birthday back in November and had been wanting one, she shrieked when she opened it! After presents we had some breakfast, C had rice pudding, and the girls tried the hot cocoa bomb I had bought from a friend, C wasn't a fan, she hasn't drank milk since she was one, but she tried it so that's what counts. The rest of the day was quiet (well as quiet as it can be with new toys) and low keyed. We Facetimed with family to open presents, we watched the Disney Christmas parade, and they played with all their new stuff. C immediately took to her rainbow piano from her cousins and caught on pretty fast playing the songs it came with. We had a non-traditional sushi/Japanese linner (lunch/dinner) and ended the day with the fire pit outside. It was a perfect "quiet" holiday, we were all having a nice time that we extended our stay at G&G's house for another day, it beat going back to the condo with nothing to do!

We went to see the light show at the mall before heading down to Miami to spend New Years. Other than eating out a few times we hadn't really done much and this was out first time being around a larger crowd. Everyone was pretty good about wearing masks and staying their distance from one another. We all enjoyed the light/music show and it gave us a little holiday magic, having missed Disney this holiday season it was the best we could do to get some bigger lights (we had gone looking at neighborhood lights a few times).

We headed to Miami a few days after Christmas to spend New Years down there. The girls were excited that their cousins playhouse was done enough to where they could finally play in it! They wasted no time when we arrived and went outside to slide, climb, play pirates and go on a treasure hunt! Seeing their cousins has been the highlight of this year, besides them and BH they haven't seen or played with anyone else. The weather was too cool to go in the pool so they spent lots of time playing in the playhouse, on the porch and playing switch! They loved Sundowners when we went for J's birthday that we made another trip for some yummy food! The girls are still upset they don't have fried shrimp on their menu! We had a nice afternoon getting some Vitamin D, listening to music and being outside and away from the house. 

Aunt Boo and I planned kid friendly NYE day/night and spent time trying to be sneaky and get things organized for them when they weren't around/looking. After the Halloween party that they still talk about we had expectations to fill! The day/night was fun filled and full of activities to keep them entertained every hour from 1pm until the ball dropped at midnight, the only one who took a nap was A, the rest of the kids lasted the entire time! Their fun started with a scavenger hunt, they have loved the scavenger hunts we have done for them, this one took them inside and outside, at the end of their hunt they found their prize waiting for them in the playhouse (the hardest part was getting them out of the playhouse to hide the final prize)! They made bottle shakers from glitter, beads and bells, had a bubble wrap dance party on the driveway that was a huge hit, popped poppers, had a foam shower party and a couple others things I can't remember! 

After their showers they all got dressed into "fancy" clothes for the night. They had their own little dinner, charuterie style,  filled with all the things they love and "cheers"ed with their "fancy" cups. The adults enjoyed our own board filled with goodies and some bubbly in the wine room away from them and their "what is next", what they had been saying all day! The time it took between bags was filled with anticipation of what was next, guess we need to plan longer activities next time, some of them only occupied 15 minutes out of the hour, and we heard "what is next" for 45 minutes! After dinner they got some of their wiggles out with a glow dance party and then had the cake they had been dying to try all day! We should have let them follow Nana's rule and have dessert before dinner. We attempted a group picture with our hot mess of a backdrop we made, we bribed them that they couldn't have the last bag unless they cooperated!

The last bag ended with sparklers for them and Uncle Mikey putting on a firework show, the girls had gotten to go with him when we were down in the Keys to the fireworks tent to pick things out, of course they wanted pink fireworks! We spent a good hour outside playing with fire, C at first was timid with the sparklers but then got brave and started double fisting them! I had gotten some of the longer ones but those let our bigger sparks, they liked the smaller ones and also the confetti poppers that made a mess all over the driveway! At about 11pm we went back inside to watch the festivities on TV and for them to play Animal Crossing, there were big NYE parties on their islands! We all saw the ball drop at midnight and then headed to bed, keeping these kids entertained all day was EXHAUSTING!

We went and saw cousin J before we headed home and celebrated the holidays with them and some pizza! The girls had fun playing with her and helped her open her gifts, I really just think they wanted to play with her new toys! They got cowgirl boots from Uncle G and Auntie V that they were super excited about, especially C, she said they were "fancy" boots, she is my boot girls! We had a nice afternoon and the girls love playing with babies, now if they would only change her diaper!

Here are the pictures from the month, Christmas and Miami.